Gertrude Foster Brown — Morrison’s Most Famous Person?

The first name that comes to mind when we talk of a Morrison native that changed the world is probably Nobel Prize winner, Robert Millikan. Perhaps we have overlooked Gertrude Foster Brown. Mrs. Brown helped change the lives of the women of the United States.

Gertrude Marion Foster was born in Morrison in 1867, one of five children of Charles and Lydia Anna Foster. Her mother died when she was seven years old. Gertie, as she was known in her youth, graduated from Morrison High School when she was 16. A story in one of the old SENTINELS told this of her younger days. (During her school life she was characterized by great vivacity, sprinballness of temper, was full of life, but fuller still of work.)

Music was her great love. She said that she could read music before she could read words, and when her older brother was taking piano lessons, his teacher helped her learn also. She was the organist at the Morrison Presbyterian Church while in high school. She played at the Sunday service as well as at funerals and weddings, and was the first paid organist for the Church. She was paid $1.00 per week.

Following her graduation from high school, her dream was to attend The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. It seems that her father had run into some financial problems and it was questionable if he could afford to send her there. She applied, anyway, things improved money wise, and she was able to attend. She finished the four-year course in two years, and was the youngest graduate of that prestigious school up until that time.

After graduating she took employment as a music instructor in Dayton, Ohio. Gertrude, however, had bigger plans and it wasn’t long before she sailed for Germany. She had some interesting adventures while spending two years at one of the best musical art schools on the continent. It was here, on January 25, 1889, that she made her professional debut as a pianist with the Philharmonic Orchestra in Berlin. She returned to the U.S. and took up residency in Chicago, where she taught and performed in concerts at the Chicago Conservatory of Music.

It was while staying at a Chicago rooming house that she met a fellow roomer, Ray Brown, an illustrator for the Hearst newspapers. Letters to her father during her stay in Europe told of a couple of love affairs. One she was sure would lead to marriage--but it didn’t. A couple more could have, but she wasn’t interested. Ray Brown and Gertrude made the perfect couple. He had no interest in music and she had no interest in newspapers. They were married for fifty years, which shows how opposites attract.

Ray had attended Worchester Polytechnic Institute, until, much to his very strict and conservative mother’s disgrace, he was expelled. It seems he was accused of being the ringleader of a group of students putting the deacons white horse in the school chapel. It was then that Ray went to Chicago to use his artistic skill to work as an illustrator for a Chicago newspaper.

Ray and Gertrude decided to get married in 1893, and it was said that when he asked her father for his permission, Charles said, “My daughter usually knows what she wants. If she wants to marry you she will do it.” They were married in an impressive ceremony in the Morrison Presbyterian Church. Her younger sister Anna, now an accomplished musician, played the organ.

Ray advanced rapidly at his job, and was soon the art director for the Hearst Newspapers. They moved to New York City in 1896 and since his salary was adequate for them to live on, Gertrude gave up her musical career until disaster struck. Ray had great responsibility at his job, worked long hours, and it led him to become ill with depression. He was afraid to leave the house and sat for hours with his head in his hands. They went through some very hard times financially. Gertrude went back to work, playing and giving lectures on the operas of Richard Wagner to help pay the bills. Ray finally recovered, and started his own business selling illustrations for advertisers. In 1905, Gertrude gave 70 lectures in a three-month period with Ray doing her advertising.

By 1906 they were doing well enough to take an extended vacation to Europe. When they got back, Gertrude suffered an attack of typhoid fever. It was during her recovery that through some conversations about the lack of women’s rights, she made her commitments to do something about it. Her first real commitment was after attending a women’s suffrage convention and hearing President William Howard Taft speak, that she got deeply involved. She spent the next ten years speaking on street corners, at a packed house at the auditorium in Philadelphia, and often from the back seat of her car, sometimes to the hecklers chant of “lady go back home and wash the dishes.” She joined with suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt in forming the Women’s Suffrage Club, and worked with that organization until the 19th amendment was passed giving women the right to vote. Gertrude served as head of the New York State Women’s Suffrage Association, and during WWI was sent to France by Mrs. Catt as a liaison officer for the Women’s Overseas Hospitals.

Gertrude returned to the United States in 1919 and by this time the war had pretty much taken peoples minds off the suffrage movement. The Woman Citizen was the official magazine of the organization. Originally called the Woman’s Journal, it was having financial problems. Again Mrs. Catt called on Mrs. Brown to take over the management and to “get it back on its feet.” The great depression was at hand, and in June 1931, it was decided to close it down.

Gertrude and Ray both retired and so spent each summer traveling in Europe and Africa. Their last visit was as Hitler was at France’s doorstep. Even so they wanted one last visit, and it turned out to be an exciting one. They were one of the last Americans to leave before France surrendered. Gertrude was active during WWII in the Women’s Action Committee for Victory and Lasting Peace.

They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary shortly before Ray’s health started to deteriorate. He died a few months later, and Gertrude died in 1956 at the age of 89. A book written by her entitled “Music and Suffrage--My Eighty Years”, tells of her life work. It is from this book, which is in the research room at the Odell Library, newspaper clippings, and information from the Gertrude Foster Brown papers at the Schlesinger Library at the Radciffe Institute, and from John Toman’s file, that most of this story was found.

Stop by the Heritage Museum and see a display of pictures, and items of interest, from the life of “Gertie” Foster--- Morrison’s own. We are open each Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 1:00 to 4:00. It is where the history of Morrison is on display!

(by Orville Goodenough, Guest Columnist)